Earth re­searcher wins Ger­man science award

Zhu Xiaox­i­ang, a Chi­nese re­searcher, was among the 10 win­ners of the 2015 Heinz Maier-Leib­nitz Prize, the most im­por­tant award for ear­ly­ca­reer sci­en­tific re­searchers in Ger­many, at a cer­e­mony in Ber­lin on Tues­day.

The Heinz Maier-Leib­nitz Prize has been awarded an­nu­ally since 1977 by the Ger­man Re­search Foun­da­tion to out­stand­ing re­searchers as both recog­ni­tion and an in­cen­tive to con­tinue pur­su­ing a path of aca­demic and sci­en­tific ex­cel­lence.

The prize, named af­ter the atomic physi­cist and for­mer foun­da­tion pres­i­dent, is re­garded as the third-most im­por­tant science prize in Ger­many, af­ter the Got­tfried Wil­helm Leib­niz Prize, also awarded by the foun­da­tion, and the Ger­man Fu­ture Prize, awarded by Ger­many’s pres­i­dent.

Zhu, a 30-year-old hon­orary pro­fes­sor at the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity of Mu­nich, was hon­ored for her re­search on Earth ob­ser­va­tion. She plans to op­ti­mize re­mote sens­ing data and pro­vide the foun­da­tions needed to de­sign new satel­lite sen­sors, the foun­da­tion said.